The policy that is accessible on the district website is very general and doesn’t go into a lot of detail. The library media center document is only accessible in the library itself or in a password protected area on the website for staff members. I am not sure if it is accessible to all staff or just teacher librarians. This document goes more in-depth with topics such as weeding, acquisition, evaluation, budgeting, discarding, donations, and re-aquisition.
IIAC: Library Materials/Selection and Adoption
Classification:
I: Instructional
Code:
IIAC
The same statement of policy and the same objectives and criteria adopted by the Board of School Trustees (the “Board”) for selection of learning resources (see policy IIA) shall apply to the selection of library materials.
In order to maintain a current and useful collection of materials, teacher librarians and media specialists will provide for continual review and renewal of the collection, not only by addition of up-to-date resources but also by the judicious elimination of materials which no longer meet needs or find use.
Gifts to the library may be accepted if they meet the criteria established for the selection of all learning resources.
Purchasing Procedure for Library Books
The Board has authorized a variance to its adopted purchasing procedures to permit continuation of a system whereby fully catalogued and processed library books are purchased from one selected Canadian supplier.
DMT Responsibility: AS-DLS
Cross References:
DJ: Purchasing; IIA: Instructional Materials
Adopted Date:
Monday February 01, 1982
Revision Date:
Oct, 1982
Aug, 1990
Sep, 1994
Jan, 1999
See the Collection Evaluation for a detailed analysis of the selected areas for my chosen collection area. After revisiting the Health and Career Education curriculum documents for Grade 6, I decided that the resources from the 570 section would not support the Prescribed Learning Outcomes.
The 150 section for Emotions, Mental Process and Intelligence has a limited number of items. The resourcing of this area with a variety of materials is needed to be a priority to support the Health and Career Education for Grade 6's study of the understanding self and how to deal appropriately with solving problems. The 177 section for Social Relations has 10 items that are up-to-date, but could add more resources to provide access to materials for all Grade 6's.
Too many video tapes ruin the presentation and appeal of the resources. Weeding this section of outdated resources will provide room for new inviting materials about Social Welfare problems and Services. There is only one video to address smoking and this needs to be weeded as the copyright has expired over a decade ago.
These shelves about the Human Body is overcrowded and is not easily accessible by students. Weeding out the older book that have a poor appearance and are out-of date, and VHS tapes that have not circulated for several years will make the collection more attractive and accessible. Also, Puberty has two non-fiction resources and are not enough resources to support 34 Grade 6 students and will need to be a priority when purchasing new resources.
As you can see the number of resources for diseases is quite small (to the right of the notebook). There are only 2 resources that are related to diseases - 1985 and 2000. I would like to weed out the book "Diseases and Medicine" because it was published in 1985 and quite old, I would probably wait until the purchase of resources that could replace this item. After looking through the books and evaluating it according to the weeding criteria, most of is still quite relevant, besides some of the old and out of date illustrations.
Step 3: Evaluations For Weeding
At the beginning of the weeding process, I did a visual scan of the different areas that would support the curriculum area. My first priority was to look at the sections that were overcrowded and seemingly filled with out-of-date or visually unappealing resources. I started with the books that had very old looking covers or pictures on the front cover that were black and white or out-of-date. Afterr flipping through these books and skimming the information and illustrations, I chose the books that I knew that I wanted to weed, knew I wanted to keep, and was unsure of. I then moved to books with multiple copies and falling apart. I based my weeding criteria on the Districts Policy regarding the removal of resources from a library collection.
Poor Content
False Information
Outdated Information
Superceded Edition
Poor Illustration
Poor Writing
Poorly Organized
Biased or Stereotypical
Inappropriate for students interests or reading level
No Use
Superflous materials
No circulation for several years
Unneeded duplicate titles
Antiquated sets
No longer support curriculum
Poor Appearance
Print is too small
Shoddy binding
Dull print
Paper too thin
Worn Out Materials
Yellow, brittle, dirty paper
Damaged pages
Missing Pages
Damaged Binding
Dingy or Dirty Covers
Step 4: Items for Weeding
152.1 Faces / Barbara Brenner [VHS]. 1970. (Black and white pictures).
152.4 DEA Dealing with Feelings [VHS]. 1991. (No circulation for several years).
152.4 FAC Facing Up: A Violence Prevention Video [VHS]. 1990 (No circulation for several years).
158 BEJ Being Responsible [VHS]. 1990 (No circulation for several years).
158 BEY Be Your Best Self [VHS]. 1990. (No circulation for several years).
355.1 SWE Valiant men: Canada’s Victoria Cross and George Cross winners / John Alexander Swettenham. 1973. (Replace with updated version, damaged binding).
361.1 MIC Mickey’s Field Trips - The Hospital [VHS]. 1987. (Outdated).
362.7 PET I have a sister, my sister is deaf/ Jeanne Whitehouse Peterson. 1974. (Outdated, false information).
362.1 ROC The Emergency Room / Anne Rockwell. 1985. (Outdated, dirty paper, poor illustration).
362.29 BAL Everything You Need to know About Drug Abuse / Jacqueline Ball. 1992. (Outdated, black and white pictures).
362.29 CRI. Critics’ choice anti-smoking reel, episode 3 [VHS]. 1999. (Expired copyright).
363.25 MACC Body, crime, suspect: how a murder investigation really works / Norah McClintock. 2005. (remove 3 copies.. multiple copies.. 6 copies in the collection).
610.FEK Diseases and medicine / Irene Feteke. 1985 (Outdated information).
611 BAL The skeleton inside you / Philip Balestrino. 1971. (Antiquated item).
612 ELT Macmillan book of the human body / Mary Elting. 1986. (Illustrations are not realistic, not appealing, old looking).
612 FEK Your Body / Irene Fekete & Peter Dorrington Ward. 1984. (Old looking, outdated information, pictures showing the technology used are outdated).
612 SPR Body watch: know your insides / Anna Sproule. 1987. (Old, poor illustration).
612 You [VHS Series]. 1977. (Taking up space, no circulation for several years).
You The Human Animal
You The Living Machine
You and Your Five Senses
You and Your Sense of Touch
612.003 The Visual Dictionary / Stoddart. 1991. (Remove one of the two copies because the cover is tattered). 612.6 MAD What’s happening to my body? book for girls: a growing up guide for parents and daughters / Lynda, Madaras. 1987. (Dirty paper and dingy cover) - Might need to keep it till new resources are being purchased as this is the only book on puberty. 612.7 The Muscles / Kathleen Elgin. 1977. (Old illustrations). 613 MACC The New Teenage Body Book / Kathy McCoy and Charles Wibbelsman. 1992. (Outdated, poor illustrations). Step 5: Removing Items Items Removed: 27
Books: 16
VHS: 11
Average Age of Items Removed: 1986 Withdrawal or Resources (Weeding) Procedure
Delete Holding from Horizon bibliographic record
Stamp “DISCARD” inside the resource
Decide which books are for RECYCLING and those that are suitable for RE-USE
The copyright information for this tape expired on January 31, 2000.
2. Faces / Barbara Brenner. 1970
152.1
The cover is not visually appealing and has some water stains. The book was published in the 1970's and the black and white illustrations inside reflect than through the fashions and quality of the pictures. This is one of the oldest books I found in the collection.
3. I have a sister, my sister is deaf/ Jeanne Whitehouse Peterson. 1974
362.7 PET
The connotations in this book is misleading and has stereotypes for the 1970's. The pictures are black and white drawn illustrations that some patrons might interpret as sad and being deaf as a disability.
4. The MacmillanBook of the Human Body / Mary Elting. 1986.
612 ELT
The front cover of this book is not very appealing and very old looking. Inside, the pictures are not realistic and the machines they show in the illustrations is technology from 1986 and doesn't look like the ones used today.
5. The Human Body: The Muscles / Kathleen Elgin. 1977. (Old illustrations)
612.7
The book is very old at 34 years old and the pages are starting to become yellow. The illustrations are done by hand are in black and white. Also, some of the information about muscles is out-of-date.
6. Your Body: The World of Science / Irene Fekete & Peter Dorrington Ward. 1984.
612 FEK
The cover is very old looking and not very appealing. The information inside is out of date and the pictures shows technology used in the hospitals and to do tests that are not up-to-date. When I was flipping through the book, some of the machines actually looked quite scary.
7. Body watch: know your insides / Anna Sproule. 1987.
612 SPR
The cover is old and the fashion on the cover are out of style. Inside the illustrations are not visually appealing or meaningful to the students.
8. Everything You Need to know About Drug Abuse / Jacqueline A. Ball. 1992. (out of date black and white pictures)
362.29 BAL
Some of the information is out-of-date and there are black and white pictures that misleading to the reader.
9. What’s happening to my body? book for girls: a growing up guide for parents and daughters/ Lynda, Madaras. 1987.
612 MAD
Dirty and yellowing pages and dingy cover. The material inside is dry with no illustrations.
10. Mickey's Field Trips - The Hospital. 1987
362.1
The hospital images are out-of-date as they show the machines being used and the fashion of the doctors, nurses, and patients.
Step 7: Discarding Books
1. Stamp “DISCARD” inside the resource 2. Box and use “BOOKS FOR RECYCLING” label #ROU-WS-00 3. Call the district for pickup 4. For suitable books for other collections, publicize through Group TL email 5. For materials suitable for charitable distribution to developing countries, box items and use “BOOKS FOR RE-USE” label #ROU-WS-008
Step 8: Reflection
This project was quite difficult as there was a lot of difficulty, and no luck, to get the circulation reports by dewey number that the librarian knew of. She tried calling the school board for help and got a report that wasn't much help. The report that I was able to generate through the in-school system only gave the circulation reports for the previous month based on Dewey. The weeding process began by reviewing the number of items for the different sections and then a visual scan of the shelving. I started in the areas with the most resources and overcrowded shelving.
According to Bishop, weeding is one of the most psychologically difficult tasks of a beginning media specialists. I agree with her because, during the weeding assignment, I found it difficult to throw away something that might be useful in the future, deciding what titles are out of date, and feeling that throwing away books is like throwing away money. The process of weeding using the criteria laid out by policy and procedure manual from the district made decisions easier. If I was unsure of an item, I would use the library system to check how many times the item was checked out and the last time it was checked out. Unfortunately, no matter how hard I tried, I was not able to generate one report to show the publication date, checkout history, and last checkout date for a Dewey Section. I was able to specify a Dewey Section and look at each individual item, clicking through 7 screens before I found the circulation information for one item. As a result, I only used this quantitative data for those items I was unsure about weeding.
VHS tapes were a bit of a challenge. Some of the VHS tapes would still be useful such as Bill Nye the Science Guy and Magic School Bus. I decided to weed all the VHS tapes that were prepared by the Ministry of Education since they were old and probably of date with fashion and the technology depicted in the scenes. I double checked the library circulation system to see if some of these were still being used by teachers. In addition, I asked the librarian her advice about the content and how appealing the content would be for the students.
After going through the Dewey sections that could be weeded, I took a scan over several other areas that might be useful for supporting the Health and Career Education for Grade 6's. There are 4 books on bullying and 1 video accessible by students. The intermediate Fiction contains 27 titles and a good number of picture books. The number of traffic safety student resources are limited to 3 about traffic signs and symbols - 1 fiction and 2 non-fiction. There are many cooking books, but only 3 about Health and Nutrition. There are no resources related to careers and several resources for vocational guidance for women, to be a police officer, and blue collar jobs. Finally, there are only two titles to do with life skills (School and Non-Everyday Situation). This section needs to be a priority as there is a mandate by schools to focus on life skills in the curriculum.
After this experience of weeding, I would do several things differently next time. The first would find out how prepare the variety of reports that would make the process of weeding more efficient. In addition, I would ensure that I was familiar with the vision and guidelines for the library I was working in. This would include circulation data, borrower records, surveys, and questionnaires. Also, I would also learn how to use resource such as Follet Titlewave to provide a summary of the collection. Finally, I would use the curriculum documents to find out what are some recommended resources that support units of instruction.
At the beginning of this assignment I was skeptical when Bishop mentioned that weeding had many benefits that included the creation of more space, avoiding the cost of maintaining unwanted items, and saving time in locating items. After weeding the collection and looking at the shelves, the removal of the drab, dull or materials that are technologically outdated did make for a more attractive collection and orderly, neat environment.
Step 1: Policies
The policy that is accessible on the district website is very general and doesn’t go into a lot of detail. The library media center document is only accessible in the library itself or in a password protected area on the website for staff members. I am not sure if it is accessible to all staff or just teacher librarians. This document goes more in-depth with topics such as weeding, acquisition, evaluation, budgeting, discarding, donations, and re-aquisition.IIAC: Library Materials/Selection and Adoption
Classification:I: Instructional
Code:
IIAC
The same statement of policy and the same objectives and criteria adopted by the Board of School Trustees (the “Board”) for selection of learning resources (see policy IIA) shall apply to the selection of library materials.
In order to maintain a current and useful collection of materials, teacher librarians and media specialists will provide for continual review and renewal of the collection, not only by addition of up-to-date resources but also by the judicious elimination of materials which no longer meet needs or find use.
Gifts to the library may be accepted if they meet the criteria established for the selection of all learning resources.
Purchasing Procedure for Library Books
The Board has authorized a variance to its adopted purchasing procedures to permit continuation of a system whereby fully catalogued and processed library books are purchased from one selected Canadian supplier.
DMT Responsibility: AS-DLS
Cross References:
DJ: Purchasing; IIA: Instructional Materials
Adopted Date:
Monday February 01, 1982
Revision Date:
Oct, 1982
Aug, 1990
Sep, 1994
Jan, 1999
__http://www.vsb.bc.ca/district-policy/iiac-library-materialsselection-and-adoption__
Step 2: Collection Evaluation
See the Collection Evaluation for a detailed analysis of the selected areas for my chosen collection area. After revisiting the Health and Career Education curriculum documents for Grade 6, I decided that the resources from the 570 section would not support the Prescribed Learning Outcomes.
The 150 section for Emotions, Mental Process and Intelligence has a limited number of items. The resourcing of this area with a variety of materials is needed to be a priority to support the Health and Career Education for Grade 6's study of the understanding self and how to deal appropriately with solving problems. The 177 section for Social Relations has 10 items that are up-to-date, but could add more resources to provide access to materials for all Grade 6's.
Too many video tapes ruin the presentation and appeal of the resources. Weeding this section of outdated resources will provide room for new inviting materials about Social Welfare problems and Services. There is only one video to address smoking and this needs to be weeded as the copyright has expired over a decade ago.
These shelves about the Human Body is overcrowded and is not easily accessible by students. Weeding out the older book that have a poor appearance and are out-of date, and VHS tapes that have not circulated for several years will make the collection more attractive and accessible. Also, Puberty has two non-fiction resources and are not enough resources to support 34 Grade 6 students and will need to be a priority when purchasing new resources.
As you can see the number of resources for diseases is quite small (to the right of the notebook). There are only 2 resources that are related to diseases - 1985 and 2000. I would like to weed out the book "Diseases and Medicine" because it was published in 1985 and quite old, I would probably wait until the purchase of resources that could replace this item. After looking through the books and evaluating it according to the weeding criteria, most of is still quite relevant, besides some of the old and out of date illustrations.
Step 3: Evaluations For Weeding
At the beginning of the weeding process, I did a visual scan of the different areas that would support the curriculum area. My first priority was to look at the sections that were overcrowded and seemingly filled with out-of-date or visually unappealing resources. I started with the books that had very old looking covers or pictures on the front cover that were black and white or out-of-date. Afterr flipping through these books and skimming the information and illustrations, I chose the books that I knew that I wanted to weed, knew I wanted to keep, and was unsure of. I then moved to books with multiple copies and falling apart. I based my weeding criteria on the Districts Policy regarding the removal of resources from a library collection.
Poor Content
No Use
Poor Appearance
Worn Out Materials
Step 4: Items for Weeding
152.1 Faces / Barbara Brenner [VHS]. 1970. (Black and white pictures).
152.4 DEA Dealing with Feelings [VHS]. 1991. (No circulation for several years).
152.4 FAC Facing Up: A Violence Prevention Video [VHS]. 1990 (No circulation for several years).
158 BEJ Being Responsible [VHS]. 1990 (No circulation for several years).
158 BEY Be Your Best Self [VHS]. 1990. (No circulation for several years).
355.1 SWE Valiant men: Canada’s Victoria Cross and George Cross winners / John Alexander Swettenham. 1973. (Replace with updated version, damaged binding).
361.1 MIC Mickey’s Field Trips - The Hospital [VHS]. 1987. (Outdated).
362.7 PET I have a sister, my sister is deaf/ Jeanne Whitehouse Peterson. 1974. (Outdated, false information).
362.1 ROC The Emergency Room / Anne Rockwell. 1985. (Outdated, dirty paper, poor illustration).
362.29 BAL Everything You Need to know About Drug Abuse / Jacqueline Ball. 1992. (Outdated, black and white pictures).
362.29 CRI. Critics’ choice anti-smoking reel, episode 3 [VHS]. 1999. (Expired copyright).
363.25 MACC Body, crime, suspect: how a murder investigation really works / Norah McClintock. 2005. (remove 3 copies.. multiple copies.. 6 copies in the collection).
610.FEK Diseases and medicine / Irene Feteke. 1985 (Outdated information).
611 BAL The skeleton inside you / Philip Balestrino. 1971. (Antiquated item).
612 ELT Macmillan book of the human body / Mary Elting. 1986. (Illustrations are not realistic, not appealing, old looking).
612 FEK Your Body / Irene Fekete & Peter Dorrington Ward. 1984. (Old looking, outdated information, pictures showing the technology used are outdated).
612 SPR Body watch: know your insides / Anna Sproule. 1987. (Old, poor illustration).
612 You [VHS Series]. 1977. (Taking up space, no circulation for several years).
612.003 The Visual Dictionary / Stoddart. 1991. (Remove one of the two copies because the cover is tattered).
612.6 MAD What’s happening to my body? book for girls: a growing up guide for parents and daughters / Lynda, Madaras. 1987. (Dirty paper and dingy cover) - Might need to keep it till new resources are being purchased as this is the only book on puberty.
612.7 The Muscles / Kathleen Elgin. 1977. (Old illustrations).
613 MACC The New Teenage Body Book / Kathy McCoy and Charles Wibbelsman. 1992. (Outdated, poor illustrations).
Step 5: Removing Items
Items Removed: 27
Average Age of Items Removed: 1986
Withdrawal or Resources (Weeding) Procedure
Step 6: Top 10 Weeds
1. Critics’ choice anti-smoking reel, episode 3 [videorecording]. 1999.
2. Faces / Barbara Brenner. 1970
3. I have a sister, my sister is deaf/ Jeanne Whitehouse Peterson. 1974
4. The Macmillan Book of the Human Body / Mary Elting. 1986.
5. The Human Body: The Muscles / Kathleen Elgin. 1977. (Old illustrations)
6. Your Body: The World of Science / Irene Fekete & Peter Dorrington Ward. 1984.
7. Body watch: know your insides / Anna Sproule. 1987.
8. Everything You Need to know About Drug Abuse / Jacqueline A. Ball. 1992. (out of date black and white pictures)
9. What’s happening to my body? book for girls: a growing up guide for parents and daughters/ Lynda, Madaras. 1987.
10. Mickey's Field Trips - The Hospital. 1987
Step 7: Discarding Books
1. Stamp “DISCARD” inside the resource
2. Box and use “BOOKS FOR RECYCLING” label #ROU-WS-00
3. Call the district for pickup
4. For suitable books for other collections, publicize through Group TL email
5. For materials suitable for charitable distribution to developing countries, box items and use “BOOKS FOR RE-USE” label #ROU-WS-008
Step 8: Reflection
This project was quite difficult as there was a lot of difficulty, and no luck, to get the circulation reports by dewey number that the librarian knew of. She tried calling the school board for help and got a report that wasn't much help. The report that I was able to generate through the in-school system only gave the circulation reports for the previous month based on Dewey. The weeding process began by reviewing the number of items for the different sections and then a visual scan of the shelving. I started in the areas with the most resources and overcrowded shelving.
According to Bishop, weeding is one of the most psychologically difficult tasks of a beginning media specialists. I agree with her because, during the weeding assignment, I found it difficult to throw away something that might be useful in the future, deciding what titles are out of date, and feeling that throwing away books is like throwing away money. The process of weeding using the criteria laid out by policy and procedure manual from the district made decisions easier. If I was unsure of an item, I would use the library system to check how many times the item was checked out and the last time it was checked out. Unfortunately, no matter how hard I tried, I was not able to generate one report to show the publication date, checkout history, and last checkout date for a Dewey Section. I was able to specify a Dewey Section and look at each individual item, clicking through 7 screens before I found the circulation information for one item. As a result, I only used this quantitative data for those items I was unsure about weeding.
VHS tapes were a bit of a challenge. Some of the VHS tapes would still be useful such as Bill Nye the Science Guy and Magic School Bus. I decided to weed all the VHS tapes that were prepared by the Ministry of Education since they were old and probably of date with fashion and the technology depicted in the scenes. I double checked the library circulation system to see if some of these were still being used by teachers. In addition, I asked the librarian her advice about the content and how appealing the content would be for the students.
After going through the Dewey sections that could be weeded, I took a scan over several other areas that might be useful for supporting the Health and Career Education for Grade 6's. There are 4 books on bullying and 1 video accessible by students. The intermediate Fiction contains 27 titles and a good number of picture books. The number of traffic safety student resources are limited to 3 about traffic signs and symbols - 1 fiction and 2 non-fiction. There are many cooking books, but only 3 about Health and Nutrition. There are no resources related to careers and several resources for vocational guidance for women, to be a police officer, and blue collar jobs. Finally, there are only two titles to do with life skills (School and Non-Everyday Situation). This section needs to be a priority as there is a mandate by schools to focus on life skills in the curriculum.
After this experience of weeding, I would do several things differently next time. The first would find out how prepare the variety of reports that would make the process of weeding more efficient. In addition, I would ensure that I was familiar with the vision and guidelines for the library I was working in. This would include circulation data, borrower records, surveys, and questionnaires. Also, I would also learn how to use resource such as Follet Titlewave to provide a summary of the collection. Finally, I would use the curriculum documents to find out what are some recommended resources that support units of instruction.
At the beginning of this assignment I was skeptical when Bishop mentioned that weeding had many benefits that included the creation of more space, avoiding the cost of maintaining unwanted items, and saving time in locating items. After weeding the collection and looking at the shelves, the removal of the drab, dull or materials that are technologically outdated did make for a more attractive collection and orderly, neat environment.
References
IIAC: Library Materials/Selection and Adoption. Vancouver School Board. Accessed October 30, 2011. http://www.vsb.bc.ca/district-policy/iiac-library-materialsselection-and-adoption
Bishop, K. (2007). The Selection Program in Schools. Libraries Unlimited. Westport, CT.